


Carl

by 1000lux



Category: The Walking Dead (TV)
Genre: Afterlife, Gen, Ghosts, Redemption, Ron gets an actual character arc, Sorta Happy Ending, Sorta fix-it, a hella lot of haunting, sad but also not sad, second chances for everyone, spoilers for How it's gotta be, spoilers for s08e08
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-01-14
Updated: 2018-01-14
Packaged: 2019-03-04 18:22:12
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,864
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13370481
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/1000lux/pseuds/1000lux
Summary: Carl is gone. But then he is not gone.





	Carl

**Author's Note:**

> Disclaimer: I don't own rights to either comics or tv show, nor the characters of it.
> 
> I haven't even watched the 8th season yet, but I heard that Carl got bitten and it made me very, very angry and super sad. So I wrote this, immediately afterwards, but haven't really gotten to posting it until now.
> 
> Honestly, my secret hope is, that Carl got bitten by one of the Whisperers and will live, even though I'm pretty sure that's not going to happen....

Carl dies by his own hand, from a bullet from the same gun that killed his mother. Carl dies surrounded by his father and all the people he loves.

*

Rick lifts Carl's body into the ground.

"I'm so sorry. I'm so sorry, Carl."

*

Carl is dead.

*

Carl opens his eyes and is in the woods surrounding Alexandria, where he used to hang with Enid.

Carl reaches for a tree... and his hand vanishes in it. Like the tree isn't even there. Only it's Carl who isn't there. He looks around the woods that are so familiar to him. Where he is and at the same time isn't. Tries to ground himself. Something. Just something. Something that's the way it used to be. Something he can hold onto. Only he can't hold onto anything anylonger.

There's a rustle in the underbrush. Carl jerks around. Hoping to see his dad or Michonne. For some ridiculous reason. For them to see him.

It's a walker that comes walking through the trees. When it reaches Carl, it stops. It stops and turns and walks past Carl. And for a second, as it groans and turns it's head, their eyes meet.

"What the hell are you doing here?!" a panicked, angry voice yells through the woods, far louder than any sane person would these days.

Carl turns around. And sees a person. A person he knows. It takes him a moment, which is funny, given that he should remember him better than anyone, given the lasting impact he left on him.

"Ron?! What the fuck are you doing here?!"

"I'm dead." comes the hissed answer.

"Well, there's your answer, dumbass."

"Fuck you."

"Where's your mom? Where's Sam?"

"They left." 

"They left?"

"They just left! There was a light and they left."

"Why didn't you go with them?"

"Because I can't!" Another screamed reply and beside Carl a tree bursts.

"Holy shit! Calm down, dude." Then, "How did you do that?"

"I don't know. It just happens."

"When you're angry?"

"I don't know! I'm angry all the time."

"You took my eye out when you tried to kill my dad, did you know that?"

"Yes." that reply is a lot more meek. "I didn't mean to, I wanted to kill him."

"That's not fair."

"He hacked my mom's arm off! He killed my dad!! He DESTROYED EVERYTHING I EVER LOVED!!!" Around them leaves start to fall from the trees from a sudden wind, and all around the woods the walkers seem to howl at the same time.

*

"How the hell are we the only two ghosts here?" Carl asks. "People die around here all the time. That makes no sense."

"I don't fucking know!" Ron reacts with his standard emotion of anger.

"And I get stuck with the fucking poltergeist."

Ron gives a growl and vanishes. That's a really neat trick. Carl has to learn how to do that to. He's a ghost, for Christ's sake, he shouldn't have to walk everywhere.

*

Carl goes into the church. He spends a futile hour ghosting around Father Gabriel. If someone's ought to have a connection to the afterlife it would be him.

"Hello? Hello! Come on! You gotta be kidding me." He sinks back onto a church bank exhausted. "Ron! Ro-hon!!!"

The other pops up not ten seconds after Carl called him.

"What?!"

"Do something with the flames, flicker them or something."

Moments later, the candles on the altar burst into an explosion of molten wax, splattering all over the place. Father Gabriel comes running, preventing anything from catching fire.

"I said, flicker the flames, not burn down the whole church." But Carl is laughing, because honestly, that was kinda cool.

"Do it yourself then!" Ron spits.

*

"Shame about your junior, Rick." Negan says unusually subdued. "You know I respected the hell out of that kid. Why don't we take a break, put all that war business on hold for a bit? Have some time to get your head back straight on. Trust me, you'll need it."

"Why would you do that?"

"Doesn't seem right to bash your head in while you're grieving for your son. Jeeesus, thought that little future serial killer was going to outlive me." Negan shakes his head regretfully. "Was looking forward to it actually."

*

Carl sits in the house at the kitchen table. "Hi, dad." he says when Rick walks in. But of course his father doesn't hear him. Still, Carl does it every morning. And it gives him the feeling that he's still here somehow.

*

Carl sits with Judy. She looks at him and smiles. She holds up her stuffed rabbit and tries to give it to him. Carl starts singing to her.

"Who are you talking to, darlin'?" Rick asks with a smile, kneeling down to pick up his daughter.

"Hun-hine!" she sings happily.

*

"Teach me to do that."

"I told you, I don't know how!"

"Seriously, man. I need to communicate with my family somehow."

"What, by making things explode around them?!"

"Just because you can't control it doesn't mean I won't be able to."

And he's alone again.

*

"We lead them away."

"What? Are you insane?"

"Do be a pussy, it's not like they could bite you."

In answer Ron makes a face that says he isn't really sure about that.

 

Carl makes eye-contact with the walker and it–he looks at Carl and holds his gaze and he lets out an aching groan, reaches out a hand and follows Carl. And the others follow after him.

Rick, Michonne and Jesus look at the horde of walkers, just a few yards away from them, who suddenly make a a turn to the left and walk right past Alexandria, when they had been going that way for miles.

"What is happening?" Rick asks softly, not too loud.

"I don't know." Michonne replies.

*

"Throw a plate," Carl says.

"What?"

"Quick! Throw a plate."

A plate crashes to the floor beside Rick. Rick stops stunned in his track.

*

Michonne is in the bathroom, brushing her teeth.

"Can you write something into the condensation on the mirror?" Carl asks.

"Do you really think we should be here?" Ron asks dubiously.

"That's my mom," Carl replies with a scoff. "And it's not like she's naked or something. Come on, write something."

The next moment the tube of toothpaste bursts.

"Oh, shit!" Carl exclaims. "She's going to be so mad at me."

"She can't see us."

Meanwhile, Michonne looks at the toothpaste with the strangest expression.

*

He can't. He's been trying so hard. But he just can't. He can't do the things Ron can do.

*

Rick looks at Michonne. "Am I insane? Have I finally lost it, now that Carl is gone?" He looks devastaded. "I don't know what's happening." he whispers.

"No, Rick." Michonne puts her hands around him. "You haven't lost it. You're okay. We're both okay. I don't know either what is happening, Rick. But, I don't know. The strangest things are going on."

*

Michonne is alone in the woods. She takes her sword off, putting it on the ground and takes a deep breath.

"Carl?" she asks carefully. "Carl?" She pauses and waits. Puts her hands on her forehead. "Oh God, what was I thinking? I'm going crazy."

"Do something!" Carl jabs Ron in the side.

"No!"

"Don't be an asshole! Do something!"

"You realise she's the one who killed me, right? Ran me right through with that katana."

"Yeah, and I'm the one who gets to run around the afterlife with only one eye, thanks to you." Carl replies unfazed, lifting the bandage of his eyes.

"Ewww." Ron replies in genuine shock.

"Yeah, ewww. You owe me. Big time. Now get to it."

Ron reluctantly drops off the branch they'd been sitting on to the forest floor. A jump during which a living person would have a least broken a leg.

"Uhmm..." Ron picks up a nut and throws it at Michonne.

"Ow!" She looks around confused. "What the hell?"

"What kind of asshole are you?" Carl asks indignated from up on the tree.

"What was I supposed to do? Shake her hand? Sing a song? I only have so many options!"

"I don't know start some wind. Let some leaves fall. Something nice."

"That only works when I'm ANGRY!" Ron squeezes his eyes shut and balls his fists.

"Don't get your panties in a twist." Carl rolls his eyes. "I didn't mean anything by it."

"You NEVER mean anything! YOU AND YOUR FATHER! I don't know what I'm doing!!! I NEVER DID! I CAN'T JUST CONJURE UP WHATEVER YOU WANT!"

All the birds in the trees set flight at the same time. Michonne stares in shock as three deers come running through the trees, right towards her. Instead of running her over, they part to either side of her, as if there were something standing in front of her.

In front of Michonne, Ron has sunken to his knees, breathing heavy. "I didn't mean to do that. I didn't mean that."

*

"Where did everyone else go?" Ron picks up the question Carl asked months ago.

"I don't know. Maybe we're the only ones who aren't done with this world yet. But anyhow, I know I can't leave. I wouldn't leave, even if this magical light somehow popped up."

"You're an idiot then, I'd be gone in the blink of an eye, if I had the chance."

"But, I get why I'm here. I don't get why you're here."

"Trust me, I don't either."

"I also don't get why Glenn isn't here anylonger. Did you see him? Did you see how it all happened?"

"No, I didn't. And I didn't see him. He must have left real quick."

*

"Do you think I'll be ever able to do the things you do?" Carl asks.

"Don't know. Probably. You haven't been dead that long."

"Why didn't you haunt anyone?" Carl asks. "I mean, you can do all this stuff. I'd have expected you to be throwing pots and pans at my home on the daily."

"No. I didn't want to go there. Everyone there hates me. Everyone in Alexandria. I don't go in there."

"You've never been in Alexandria since you died?"

"Yes, I've been. In the beginning. I didn't like it. I stayed in the woods after that."

"No wonder you've become crazy."

*

"Look, I'm maybe dead, but I'm not useless. I'm not going to stand by and watch my family fight, without doing anything. You're maybe a coward, but I'm not going to stand by and pretend there's nothing I can do. And of the two of us, you can do so much more."

*

The rebuilt wall of the Sanctuary combusts into debris and flames, as a car that no one's driving crashes into it.

Walkers from outside seem to follow an invisible lead that drags them towards the Sanctuary.

The people who come to extinguish the fire, are engulfed by the flames. The fire lashing out like it was a creature.

Even hours later there's still fire everywhere. And in the middle of it, Ron is kneeling on the ground, hugging his legs to his body.

"You shouldn't have made me do that! You shouldn't have made me do that!" he howls and cries through the roar of the flames. "Tell me how to stop!"

*

"What the hell, Rick?! We had an agreement!" Negan asks angrily.

"Those weren't my people, Negan. I swear."

"Tell that to the people who died in the fire you set! Not the to mention all the ones who got torn to shreds by walkers!"

"Negan, I swear on the grave of my son. I was not the one to break the peace."

"Fuck, okay. Well, I don't believe fucking word one of what you say, you vengeful fucker. You want it, you got it. We're going back to war."

 

"Fuck," Carl looks at Ron helplessly. "What is going on?"

"I told you, we shouldn't have done that."

*

Carl and Ron find Daryl in the woods. After three days. He's bleeding badly, holed up in some makeshift hut, lying on the ground, fading in and out of consciousness.

Carl turns to Ron. "Get help."

Ron looks at him flabbergasted. "How?!"

"Think of something! You have a better chance than I do. Get. Help."

Ron vanishes.

Carl sits with Daryl. Holds his shaking, clammy hand, despite not actually being able to hold it. "Don't worry," he tells him. "You're going to be fine. Help is on the way. I'm going to stay with you. I'm not leaving you here alone."

 

Ron goes into Rick Grimes' house. He's not sure what he's supposed to do. He doesn't want to be here. He could try to talk to Enid. But Enid's at Hilltop and Ron's never been there, so he doesn't know how to get there. And him. With him he maybe has a chance. Anger. That's what he needs now. He doesn't know how to do this. He only knows he can't let Carl down on this.

Ron stops in front of Rick Grimes, who's sitting at the kitchen table. "Help!" he yells angrily. "I need help! Your dumb friend needs help!"

Of course there's no reaction. Ron's been a ghost long enough to know that. So Ron starts throwing down the pots and pans in the kitchen. Rick jumps up, colt drawn. Yeah, good luck with that, Ron thinks.

Ron throws the car keys down next. Rick picks them up, hesitantly, warily. And then they are standing right in front of each other. They look at each other, despite Rick not actually looking at him. But Ron can tell that he's trying. That for the first time he's genuinely trying to see.

"What?" Rick asks carefully. "What are you trying to tell me?"

Daryl. Ron thinks desperately. Go to the car, please. Then he yells. "Your dumb friend! Your dumb friend is dying in the woods!!!" and shoves Rick against the chest, falling right through him.

"Daryl." Rick whispers.

Ron almost wants to cry in relief.

Rick grabs the keys tighter and starts jogging to his car.

When they are inside Rick starts the motor and says to no one at all. "Help me, okay?"

And carefully Ron steers the wheel Rick is holding, all the time thinking of his dead father, all the time thinking 'don't accidentally steer the car into a tree'.

 

Later when they are driving him home, Daryl lifts his head, slightly, so he can look at Rick and murmurs. "Knew you was coming. Carl told me to hold on."

Rick nearly steers the car off the road then.

*

The three of them sit there. Rick, Michonne and Daryl.

"It's not Carl." Rick says. "It... it felt... somehow malevolent."

"I know," Michonne replies. "I felt it too, in the woods. It was dark and angry. And I felt afraid."

"When..." Rick pauses. "In the kitchen. I felt cold. There for a moment, I felt like ice was clutching my heart. It... It's not Carl."

"Sure as fuck was in the woods." Daryl says. "Ain't no one tellin' me it was the bloodloss."

 

Carl looks at them somewhat disgruntled. "I've been around those times too. Seemingly I have literally zero aura."

Beside him Ron looks at the three living with shocked sadness in his eyes. "I'm not evil." he whispers. "I'm not... I'm not bad. I'm not some kind of monster."

*

Carl looks at his dad, trying to fight off a walker on one side and a Savior on the other. He's losing. And Carl does the only thing he can think of, the only thing that might work.

He turns to the walker and whispers in his ear. "No, the other one."

The walker lets go of Rick and buries his teeth in the Savior who doesn't even have time to realises what's happened.

*

"We need to do something." Carl says. "I have to fix this."

They arrive at the Sanctuary.

Carl has allday-long onesided conversations with Negan. Day in day out. 

 

It's week three when Negan suddenly puts his scotch down and says. "Are you fucking actually there, you little fucker?"

*

"Didn't in all fucking honesty think, that after the shit-load of people I killed, the one to haunt me would be the one I didn't kill. How's death treating you, you tenacious little fuck? Should have fucking known this wasn't the end of the line for you." Negan shakes his head at his own folly. But fuck it, whatever. That's sure the best company he's had in months. "But, honestly, kiddo, shouldn't you be ghosting around Papa Bear? I'm sure he misses the fuck out of you. But, hey, I get it, I'd rather hang with me too." Negan can't believe he just winked into an empty room. "But, you gotta cut him some fucking slack. It's not his fault he's such a fucking earnest, grouchy killjoy. We can't all be the fun uncle. He's your dad. And he misses you. Hell, even I miss you. It's just not the same without you jumping out of one of my vans with an AK, shooting some of my people." Negan laughs. "No, it sure as fuck isn't."

*

Carl throws a last look at Negan, who sits there alone in his room, with his Scotch, and looks strangely enough just as miserable as his dad. 

He's waiting for Ron to pick him up, because that whole teleporting thing isn't really working for him yet.

"I guess, the rest is up to you." Carl says, nodding at the man, who sitting there, slumped in his chair, doesn't look so much larger than life anymore.

*

Carl and Ron are around Alexandria, once more leading walkers away.

"I've been thinking," Carl starts. "I think you're a vengeful ghost, or something... Maybe they need to burn your bones for you to be able to leave."

"What did they do to my body?" Ron asks in a small voice.

"I guess they buried you with your mom and brother." Carl shrugs, he hadn't been awake to be able to say that for sure.

"No." Ron shakes his head. "They don't bury killers inside."

*

They are in the woods, as usually. When they come upon someone. They don't even recognize him at first, as rotten as he is. Carl doesn't at least. It isn't until Ron beside him starts crying that Carl sees that it's Ron himself who's standing in front of them, looking at them with empty eyes and gnashing teeth. Still seeing so much more than the living do. The corpse is looking at Ron with something like longing in it's eyes, like it knows what it's lost.

But, yeah, it makes sense. Carl wasn't there, he only heard the stories, but there's a fair chance that some of the walkers got away. Maybe Jessie and Sam are out here somewhere too.

*

When Rick drives out to go on a run, there's a walker standing beside one of the broke down cars. It's swaying from side to side, but not moving. There are words written into the dust on a the windshield of the car. In unsteady, big letters, like from someone who's just learned to write. 'Bury me'.

Rick puts a knife through Ron's head. He picks up the rotten body of the boy who took his son's eye out and he starts walking. He carries his body out into the woods. Keeps walking until he finds a grave he dug here a long time ago. Rick buries Ron beside his father.

 

"I'm telling you," Rick insists. "It was there."

"Rick," Father Gabriel says gently. "Anyone could have written that on the car. That's the kind of thing people write these days."

"No, no, you weren't there."

"Why would Carl want you to bury Ron?"

 

For the first time since all of this. Carl managed to do this. Managed to do what Ron does all the time. A half-hazard scribble that took all of his energy. But he did it. He touched the glass, felt the dust and it moved under his finger. He made an impact again. Like he's still here after all.

*

"Do you feel any different?" Carl asks, as they stand in front of Ron's grave.

"I don't know." Ron replies. And Carl is already checking if he's becoming more transluctant or something. "I don't feel that different. Thank you, though. I didn't think he would."

"My dad's not an asshole. Anyway, that's why I wrote it and not you. So," Carl kicks a stone, with as much impact as 99% of everything else he does. "you think you're going to leave now, or what?"

"No. I think I'm here for now."

Carl nods to himself, then looks up again. "I'm glad."

*

Rick isn't even sure why he agreed to meet Negan, here out in the woods, so far away from either of their communities.

"I don't know, Rick. Maybe I've been drinking too much these days. Fuck knows I have. But some weird shit is going on. Even fucking weirder then the usual fucked-up shit we're dealing with."

Rick can only agree to that. "What do you want, Negan?"

"What would you say if I told you that your cyclopic, undead, spooky-as-fuck progeny came to me like a fucking angel of the lord, and told me to love my neighbor, or whatever?"

"What?!"

"I think, what I'm trying to say is, I don't wanna fight anymore. Honestly, do you?"

Rick just shakes his head.

*

Rick kneels on the forest floor, touching the grass. The place where it feels like Carl might still be there.

"Carl," he says. "You'll always be with us. I promise. Judith will grow up knowing you. We will never forget you. And we will live. We will live for you. We will be fine. Alexandria is going to live. We all are going to. For many, many years. We will build something here. I will build it for you. I don't know if you're here. Or maybe I'm going crazy. But I think, I think you should know that either way. I love you, my son. Forever."

"Dad, I..." Carl looks around desperately. His transluctant hand grabbing the shaking one of his father. What can he do? What can he do?

Rick hears the walker come up. He gets up on his feet, knife poised. But the walker doesn't approach. It just stands there, wavering to and fro. Groaning and moaning, but not moving another foot.

Rick takes a cautious step towards it. When he comes closer it reaches out it's hands to grab for him, but it still doesn't move. Rick aims for it's temple, but then one of the walker's hands reaches for his. For his hand. And Rick is hit by a jolt as the rotting hand closes around his own. He hesitates. That's what gets people killed. But the walker just holds his hand and Rick feels himself clutch the rotting hand back. And then it let's go again, but the teeth don't come snapping for his face, nor do the hands try to claw at him. It turns around and walks off in the opposite direction.


End file.
